Hijacked
by Cycle0fthePhoenix
Summary: Nia had lived a normal life when a car crash sent her life crashing down. Suddenly she was some Bella Swan girl who suffered amnesia. Despite her insistence, no one believed her and so with nothing left but to live a life that wasn't her own she played the part and became Isa Swan, the girl who understood things she probably shouldn't: supernatural things. (Moved to Gothic Rain)
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I have too much time on my hands, I can't find anything to read, and I'm dealing with severe procrastination with my other stories (on my other account) and so here we are. I'm currently working on three big projects on this account but they take a lot out of me so I made this with the hopes that I can use it as a break from my others and if it's good then it'll be a two-way beneficiary._

 _ **Hijacked**_

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just the one tinkering around with it.

 **Chapter One**

Nia Salvador didn't believe in karma. Unfortunately, the world had an ironic sense of humor and took it out on her as she was driving to work on a chilly morning in February 2018. In fact, it seemed all but Nature herself was aware of the ice that coated the roads and although Nia was an experienced driver on black ice, other less experienced drivers were not.

She had an instinctive urge to not take the highway but brushed it off, wanting to get to work on time rather than risk being late, but realized too late that her life was worth more than her job when the screeching of tires sounded beside her followed by a collision that practically flipped her car on its hood. Several other cars could be heard colliding but Nia hardly took notice, occupied trying to get her seatbelt undone while ignoring the pain that blossomed in her abdomen where the steering wheel slammed in.

She gasped, regretting it as her blood stained the cracked glass of the front windshield and felt black spots dance in her vision. Annoyance shot through her at her undesirable fear focused in on the dripping blood before she shifted, the movement causing pain to shoot up her spine and make her snap out of the taunting call of sleep.

With a click, the seat belt released its hold on her torso causing her to flip over and hit the windshield but with a groan, she rolled over. Her head ached and with a shaky hand she was met with a sticky wetness on her palms and knew it was blood and hoped it wasn't a concussion. Black spots returned to her vision as she shifted in her attempt to roll over only for agony to shoot through her and a whimper broke free as she realized the source was her back.

Nia slumped, no longer trying to escape out of her car knowing she wasn't going anywhere with her back like it was and could only hope the ambulance would arrive so that she could be hit with a feeling of safety. As the cold bit into her skin, Nia found herself wondering if her insurance would pay for the crash before shaking her head at the ridiculous question and instead debated if the expenses of the ambulance were worth it.

She hardly noticed the dark spots when they returned and finally gave into their calls of sleep with the hope that her dreams would bring her to a world free of the pain she was fighting through now.

Instead of being welcomed to her dreams she found something filling her lungs and sputtered, her eyes shooting open before wincing as cold water burned against them. Her hands shot out and she found herself startled to find herself free of pain in all areas apart from her lungs, which were yearning for the oxygen that had been replaced with water and with a determined start Nia began pushing the muscles in her arms and legs towards the surface - this time fiercely fighting the black spots dancing back in her vision.

As her hands broke past the surface, biting cold air was like a warm greeting to Nia as her head followed and she took a deep, desperate breath and squinted her eyes past the blinding light of the sun. Looking around she found tire tracks leading through frost-covered grass that led into the water. Furrowing her brows she glanced down before her curiosity got the better of her and she dived back under the water, her eyes once again expressing their irritation to their contact with the water, but Nia ignored it and found the missing piece of the puzzle lying at the bottom of the lake.

Nia didn't believe in karma, but she found herself thinking that if only she trusted her gut and hadn't taken the highway then she wouldn't be staring at a car she conveniently woke up drowning above. Ignoring the wrongness that buried itself in her chest at her current situation as she swam to land, Nia enjoyed the simple fact that she was no longer in the agony she experienced just a moment before the collision, an event that she was so sure was real.

After all, this could only be a dream, right?

But it was at that moment she looked down at her hands, which were not the familiar dark tan she had earned after working in the burning heat of the sun in Arizona nor did the back of her right hand have the scratch marks of her lovable cat. Narrowing her eyes she turned her neck to see if she were at least wearing her own clothes only to be distracted by the weight on her back she hadn't really noticed until now.

Slowly moving her hand until she grasped the heavy, wet, and long locks of hair by her shoulders she studied it fiercely from the texture, the color, to the simple fact that she somehow went from short hair to long! Dropping the hair as confusion and piercing shock went through her looked back at what she was wondering about before and found that she was indeed lacking her clothing which had the dead giveaway that she did not wear converse!

Trying her best to ignore the wrongness that was her life at that moment Nia dragged herself off the ground and began making her way to the street with the hope that someone could help her out, maybe get her to a hospital to check her identity, and get that damn car out of the water.

She could only hope that karma was funny enough to make this all just a bad life-lesson kind of dream.

* * *

Death had other ideas in mind for her.

Two days she was in the hospital for being diagnosed with a mild case of hypothermia and amnesia (which she wasn't!) and was questioned by the police to confirm that yes, that was indeed her car at the bottom of the lake, and no, she didn't remember how she got there. It was only the morning after her horribly enlightening day did they return to inform her that the traffic cameras revealed that she swerved into the lake by a hit-and-run driver who apparently didn't know a red light if he saw one.

The doctor's idiocy was one thing, the police's persistence was another, but having two strangers enter her hospital room with the exclamation of "Bella!" was an entirely different manner. Nia had never felt more like a Jane Doe in her life as she was forced to comfort strangers and call them Mom and Phil like she knew who the hell they were. And no matter how fiercely she scowled at the doctor that she wasn't this Isabella Swan girl he just shook his head sadly at her and gave her a pitying glance.

Honestly, if she wasn't sure it wouldn't help her case she would be screaming righteously and flipping tables by then. But no, instead she sat like a good patient and ignored everyone until she was brought "home" by the two strangers from before, introduced to her so-called home, and remained in her "room" for the better part of the day staring at the ceiling before shutting her eyes and hoping that she would wake up back in her real home by morning.

It didn't happen.

When Nia woke that morning to find herself faced with devouring sadness she found herself slumping against the desk across the room before flipping open the laptop and logging in while muttering idiocy under her breath for the real Isabella Swan who apparently didn't realize how important a password was and could only hope she wouldn't have to fight a swarm of viruses and malware on this computer that she would call her own.

Finding what she was looking for she clicked on the bottom right corner of the window where the time and date sat innocently despite Nia's disbelieving glance and with a speed she didn't know she was capable of - opened up the internet and discovered that her computer didn't lie when it said it was indeed February 4th, 2003. "Fuck."

As the numbers glared back at her Nia found herself pushing off the chair and away from the computer. She idly noticed her hands were shaking and closed her eyes, wishing with all her heart and soul that none of this was real and was just a sick joke on her by her subconscious mind. She's had worse dreams but none were as unpredictable and realistic as this. Worse though, she felt like she was living a lie. Nothing in this 'dream' felt like it was trying to send her a message or tell her something more. Instead, it felt like a cage with shackles she could not break and no one had the key to her escape either.

It was exasperating.

It was terrifying.

Opening her eyes she met the mirror unflinchingly. Taking in the traitor looking back at her in the mirror. Her skin light and fair with no scars or muscle she was familiar with, of length that betrayed what was once her short stature. Then there were the greenish-brown eyes reflected back to what was once a golden hazel that blazed on fire in the sunlight. Her eyebrows were casual and in need of waxing rather than the fine eyebrows they'd once been.

Her previously short and dark hair was long and a brown that waved down her back in soft natural flips. She was taller than she remembered being with finders long and nimble, palms reflecting lines she was unfamiliar with and mar-free from the hard labor she had grown up harboring. Her facial structure was different, her figure was different, and she was younger.

Nia assured herself it could've been worse.

But it wasn't her.

She screamed.

Hands tugging at the hair that wasn't her, frustrated and enraged tears flung violently from her eyes as she flipped the single bed on its side and punched the wall brutally. The pain that shot up her arm further felt like a betrayal. A stranger's body reflecting her pain. She screamed like she never had before; one of rage, or horrifying realization, of loss, of abandonment and a thousand other feelings she didn't take the energy to identify.

Breathing heavily she continued to beat the wall without mercy to her hands or the wall itself, punching it like all her anger and fear was worth before her adrenaline eventually faded and she slumped against the wall with her forehead pressed against the cold and unfeeling wall, a sharp contrast to herself.

Leaning back on her heels she stood back up, clenching and unclenching her bruised and blistering knuckles, sparing a short thought of gratitude that Phil and Renee weren't in the house during her breakdown and begun to strip, determined to learn everything about this new body she was to call her own and to live a life that was certainly not her own.

Until she was 18 and cleared by a doctor she would just have to live a lie... but she was going to do it as Nia. Not this "Bella Swan" girl full of teenage hormones and complications. She already missed her fine liquor but would just have to cope another way. Glancing down at her bruised fists she considered the idea of boxing or even street fighting before pushing it away to dwell on what she needed to deal with at the moment.

So she took all her frustrations and insecurity over this strange new situation and locked it away deep in her soul (the only thing she could truly consider her own) and turned back to the mirror only to flinch this time at the strange tattoo marking directly over her heart. Tracing her finger around it she furrowed her eyebrows as she recalled her own tattoos and wondered what on earth this girl wanted an ouroboros of all things to symbolize on her body.

But not just on her body, but directly on her heart too. Staring at the snake eating its own tail she felt a strange familiarity with the symbol and wondered if the internet from ten years ago would have any answers about the significance of the Ouroboros. It was only a fleeting hope that hoped it could connect to her situation but in the end, she knew it was unlikely. The most likely scenario was that Bella Swan decided to get a tattoo and got the closest thing she could relate to.

Or liked Fullmetal Alchemist. Either, or.

Sighing with an exhaustion that could only be matched with an old soul Nia studied her newfound body critically, noting all of its flaws and searching for muscles, already working out a routine to rebuild her definite muscles. This body was just asking for trouble with the way it was and in a city like New York, Nia doubted Bella would last a day, especially with the innocent look her style was portraying. Turning, she analyzed the room and took in the many lamps, small library of romance novels, a closet full of Department Store casual clothes, and basically just an overall sense of a teenage girl screaming "I'm plain, please ignore me, I just want to be left alone!" Being left alone was easy but Bella was going about the approach entirely wrong.

There were too many things that could go wrong living a life with such a perspective.

Where were the personal touches, the weird trinkets that only they understood, the novels of so many varieties that it left them constantly on the move for something different, the personality that was entirely unique? Nia was ambitious in her creativity and Bella wasn't - so things were about to change.

Walking over to her closet she grabbed boxes and bags from inside before gathering clothes she would never wear, let alone touch, and more or less swiped the enitre bookshelf with the thought of burning ninety percent of the novels before resolving that Half Price Books would have better luck dealing with such trash and moved on to everything else, discarding pictures and a string of lamps (like she liked lamps but there was such a thing as too much) and went through notebooks, diaries, and other related items that she did decide to burn before finding a deamable outfit for her and put it on. Anything else too complicated like bank statements, bank accounts, money, and other annoyances could wait for when Phil and Renee returned with their pitying looks and goofy smiles as they looked at each other.

Although Nia wasn't comfortable with these strangers she was at least glad they had each other while "Bella" would forever be lost in amnesia's mysteries. Nia personally thought Bella was dead; drowned and somewhere in the afterlife where Death wasn't screwing another soul over and that was that but Nia also knew no one would believe her and so she kept that thought quietly within her own mind. As she got to work straightening her room from where she flipped the bed and knocked over the trinkets on her desk she heard the door open and shut signaling the return of the strangers that she had to willingly convince she was perfectly fine and happy despite having literally no memories of them. Because they weren't her own but they didn't need to know that.

Because no one would believe her.

* * *

Time passed quickly but it felt agonizing slowly in the eyes of Nia Salvador, now called Isa Swan (she couldn't stand the ring of familiarity that came when someone called her Bella) because the reality of the situation she now called her life was blatantly obvious that this was not a dream or a nightmare or even fiction. This was real and she had to deal with it.

She could only be grateful that she was a good actress in pulling off this performance.

The doctors gave her the all-clear. Her brain scans showed nothing problematic and it appeared as though her amnesia was permanent in most areas except memories. The best the doctors could describe it was that her brain held memories of important aspects of herself (Bella) but had no familiarity with that person and was in kind words given a new beginning and a second chance where the car crash could've (and had) killed her.

Although Bella's parents and Phil weren't happy by the news in the slightest they took the doctor's words that it was better than death to heart and spent time re-acquainting themselves with the newly nicknamed Isa.

There were more than a few awkward moments where Isa would hold Renee in her arms as she sobbed for the loss of the girl she once knew and felt a pinch in her heart for the grievances the true Bella would never have but hoped the poor dead girl would understand she hadn't asked for her life in return. If she was going to hell for something out of her control at least it would spare her from an angry spirit that was this mother's real daughter.

But outside those grievances that left Phil standing awkwardly in the room and Isa understanding of the entire situation, things weren't as bad as they could be. She was pulled out of public school once they realized she would be gawked at like a science experiment for her predicament and instead convinced Renee to let her be home-schooled and more or less acquainted herself to Highschool's dreadful but not wasteful homework.

Being homeschooled wasn't so bad either because it left Isa alone to her own thoughts where she could let the act drop and be herself as Nia while Phil was out practicing for baseball and Renee was working. The extra free-time also opened up opportunities such as finding herself a part-time job in the neighboring city away from anyone who may have recognized her from Bella's old life and gave her some money to place in her recently made bank account that belonged solely to her. She got her driver's license and a motorcycle for its profit against a car even if it risked her life (because how could an already dead person complain?) but also because it gave her a rush of excitement she had longed for and needed since arriving in this new life.

There were other reasons too, of course. Such as the more things she owned and could call her own meant the less understanding she had to be. The less she would pick up a magnet or keyring and be pulled into a flashback that wasn't her own. It was a bit disappointing actually since her biggest concern was losing the life and memories as Nia Salvador but the disappointment warred heavily against the confusion and fear of what she would see.

It was actually what helped her out with the doctors. Remember certain memories of Bella more or less cleared her name and early panic (and delusions) after the crash and erased what concerns Bella's support system had for her. More than that though she didn't only see Bella. She saw Renee, she saw the people who once lived in this house, she saw the mailman delivering their mail when he got a call that his wife had died of a heart-attack, she saw what she wished she hadn't.

She saw memories of pain and despair, of happiness and reminiscence, and more. She saw whatever touched the hearts of these strangers and suddenly she found herself much more empathetic than she would have expected in this situation but as she learned the darkest parts of another's life she found herself not caring about putting her concerns in the corner. She was reaching out to others and connecting with them in ways only Nia could.

It felt liberating.

She was in a place when she felt warped in that memory of minutes to hours in brief flashes and flecks of pain that was only half a second or two in present company. It gave her a break from reality only she could feel and understand, leaving her feeling refreshed and lacking that familiar ache of missing her old life and what could she have been doing had that car crash never happened.

Because while everyone else around her was grieving for the loss of Bella Swan, Isa had never been given the time of day to grieve for the loss of Nia Salvador, whose memory she was still holding onto. Whose memory she was not going to let go of anytime soon even if she was given these strange flashbacks, body, life, and tattoo on her skin.

She wasn't going to forget Nia Salvador.

She wouldn't.

* * *

Ten months had passed since Nia Salvador became Isa Swan and there were many things she had to familiarize herself with before truly living a life that didn't start as her own. Her family was probably her hardest to get along with not because they didn't get along but because Isa was nothing like Bella a year ago and it was Charlie Swan who had the hardest time adjusting to this change, strangely enough. The two weeks she spent over his house in the summer seemed to help but every time Isa met his eyes she saw loss and sadness for a little girl/teenager he no longer saw in her eyes.

It made her wonder if that's the look that was found in her eyes after a flashback.

Despite their rough start things weren't tense between each other. Despite the sadness, they got along well enough and bonded better as friends than a father-daughter relationship most would expect of them. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either and besides, Isa found herself enjoying fishing with the Police Chief or making a barbeque for his buddies on the Force. She surprised herself on how charismatic she was but it paid off when it counted and Isa found a place in this life as the one who lifts up the mood in the room when she walked in with understanding smiles and an easy-going attitude.

Slowly Nia and Isa merged into one personality and the end result wasn't bad. Sometimes she felt as though she were playing a game of tug-of-war between her selves but as time passed and the people she was around the most got to know her they left what Bella was and got to know Isa instead. It was a slow and dreadful process but it worked out so far and Isa wouldn't have had it any other way.

Meanwhile, things with Renee and Phil were strong despite being the ones directly involved with Bella's transformation into Isa but she imagined a huge part of that acceptance came from Phil himself and Isa was very grateful for the man she would soon call step-father in public too. Renee was kind of like an old family friend she didn't see often in terms of their relationship where they hung out and played games like old friends but any deep soul-searching conversations led to Isa holding Renee in her arms until Phil arrived to comfort her in privacy or in worse-case scenarios the classic sorrowful eyes.

Isa wasn't sure how to feel about being used to it.

So it was on a windy night in Phoenix as she gazed out into the sky where fireflies glittered over the rock formations that Renee asked her if she wanted to stay with her father for her Senior Year in High School and Isa found herself honestly exhilarated at the idea of a transition to a new area. Despite the strangers who would ask her a ton of questions in the small town of Forks, Washington. Despite the strange situation with Charlie. Despite leaving the life she was only recently getting comfortable in. Despite it all, she looked forward to it and that was why she turned her head to meet her Renee's warm brown eyes and agreed with a soft smile gracing her usual considering frown.

"I love you, so much," Renee whispered into her hair as they shared a warm embrace. For Renee, it was a last moment of comfort before she left and for Isa, it was to remember that she was human, that her individuality was one of the few things she had left of Nia. When they broke apart and Renee returned to the comfortable setting of their spacious house, Isa continued to look out unto the night and let loose one tear as a symbol of movement towards the new beginning truly ahead of her.

"I understand," she replied as a whisper to the traveling wind, hoping that one day she could say those old words again with sincerity she hadn't felt since two years ago in her life as Nia.

"One day, Nia. One day, we'll be free again."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hijacked**_

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just the one tinkering around with it.

 **Chapter Two**

It was a cold morning when Isa attached her baggage to her motorcycle as the scent of morning mildew wafted over the area. She chose to pack light for two reasons: one for having very little to (truly) call her own and two, also not needing many things because she was about to start a new chapter in her life the moment she started her bike's engine.

It was maybe three/four in the morning when Isa decided to leave Renee and Phil without a final goodbye. The tears and hugs were never really her thing before being welcomed into this life and she wasn't going to start that awkwardness again with people that had very little sentimental value in her heart. Sure, they were kind people but they weren't hers. Not really. They may have embraced her with wide, open arms with assurances that they would be a family, have protection, insurance, and love but to Isa that had to be something you had to find, not be given.

A found family was typically better than blood, in her experience.

Securing the final cords to her gear she gave her possessions a final glance-over to ensure they wouldn't go flying off the moment she was half-way out of the state. She had a deadline to reach Forks, Washington after declining the offer of taking a plane there within a week's time. She couldn't abandon her motorcycle and honestly just wanted (read: needed) the freedom on the road to herself for a time before settling all over again.

No offense to Bella's father.

Throwing one leg over the bike she took one final glance at the house she had lived in for nearly a year and nodded, not entirely sure why, before starting the engine and pulling out of the driveway, driving down the street without a second glance back. Isa thought about leaving for good the other night; simply driving until she no longer could, crossing borders and finding a new life in another country away from where she would be sought after as a missing person. In the end, she decided that it was better to leave without causing grief to a family ( one that had given her a chance to do-over rather than a hard time for her "forgetfulness") and chose to stay.

It was better to leave with no hard feelings, Isa decided.

After all, once she was eighteen and had her high school diploma she could find a job easily and leave without any repercussions. They were a Swan family (at least partially), Charlie had to understand that she had to take flight and move on eventually. So, she would stay for one last year - just to give them the reassurance that she could make it on her own - and then go see the world.

She didn't get to travel the world in her first life: she wasn't about to lose the ability to see it a second time.

And that's why she needed this week, this break. She needed to be on her own again like the twenty-two-year-old adult she had once been. She needed to drive underneath the city lights and take in all the sights, sounds and smells of urban architecture of various sizes. From what she knew of Forks it was a small town and the population equally small, meaning there was less privacy of opinions and more land to explore.

She had also been an urban girl. Born and raised, constantly surrounded by people of many likes and personalities. Everything was always diverse, the people she found stayed close or moved on, and time went by swiftly but each moment spent wisely - with love and enjoyment. She was always privileged to privacy, people didn't flock to one person like hyenas to their prey, they didn't whisper and cackle in the night about something or someone. Most the time people were just dreaming and working for a better life than what they'd been given - most of them with the short straws but determined to make the most of it.

Isa wasn't ashamed to admit most the time she was alone but the best part of the urban life was that she was never truly lonely. Everyone had a story and eventually, the bastards in the night would get what was coming from them, whether in death's cold graze of winter in the streets, the constant presence of the police, or simply angering the wrong sorts of people.

It was a life she once thrived in. A life she dreamed in. A life she missed.

But as much as she loved being surrounded by buildings and lights which often outshined the presence of the starry night, Isa also loved the presence of the forest. Where she walks on no trail and simply wander, leaving predator and prey alone as they grazed the lands like her. She would climb trees and hike up the hills or mountains, and always breathed in the life that blossomed there.

So she didn't mind that Forks was her destination.

She always did crave Washington's famed coffee and apples.

* * *

In her other life she hadn't traveled often as an adult but as a teenager, she often took road and camping trips with her mother to different states and cities. Having an interest in other people's cultures it brought back fond memories as Isa now drove past the Navajo Mountain. She could already imagine her mother's expression at all the historic gift shops by the road.

The traffic wasn't horrendous but she knew that there were very few that appreciated a motorcyclist driving such long distances with them. But unlike the drivers in cars Isa didn't have the comfy seats and air conditioning. She found herself not minding much though, the feeling of the wind as she drove onward gave her a rush - not unlike the exhilaration she was met with gazing at the landscape.

Everything had its own story; its own mark and Isa restrained the urge to stop to connect with the history of the areas, no matter how tempting the flashbacks may be. So instead she drove on, only stopping for food, water, and gasoline. She fantasized in her mind what it would be like on a horse, replacing her motorcycle, to ignore the road and simply ride across the lands.

To have a companion.

She broke her fantasy quickly though to keep her focus on driving. She was aware of many stories that spoke of how most motorcyclists didn't crash by their own fault but either by other reckless drivers or the road itself. And Isa didn't even need to connect with the road to know it hadn't been repaired in a while. One misstep and she could get thrown off.

It was a thought she didn't want to become a reality.

And so she didn't stop for a break until she was well out of Arizona and half-way across Utah, suddenly very glad the cellphones hadn't been advanced like they were in her time (more than ten years, to think) because she could only imagine how much that could've slowed traffic on the way. She was also grateful she left before sunrise because as she pulled up to a hotel she knew there was nothing worse than driving on a motorcycle, surrounded by busy traffic, at night.

It was also of great relief to be able to connect to her surroundings again and be hit with flashbacks again. It had become an anchor of sorts to her, like proof that her accidental "reincarnation" or whatever this was - wasn't all in her head.

It was real. And there was more out there than stealing lives. She could see lives too, now. It was a welcoming change.

The cheap coffee in her hotel room, however, wasn't.

* * *

The following morning Isa allowed herself a vacation to explore the area outside the hotel she had stayed the night. She was captivated by learning other cultures and experiencing it outside the blazing sun of Phoenix, Arizona or the limited expanse of Forks was a rare and exciting change.

It also gave her a chance to flirt shamelessly with attractive girls she hadn't dared try to interact in Phoenix (her job excluded). Here she was free of her responsibilities, her masks, and wasn't constantly reminded of her false skin when she looked in the mirror (no matter how much she changed it to make it her own) and that was why she loved the cloak of mystery she had around herself as she eyed a particular dark brunette across the room.

Isa introduced herself as a Salvador, in memory of who she was without the mask, and allowed the stranger to show her city to her. She found herself enamored by the girl, glad to have someone to connect with outside the connection of flashbacks, and allowed herself just that once to let go.

They made love beneath the city lights that night, knowing it was with no strings attached, and simply enjoying another's presence. The love in laying next to the other person to listen to their strong, beating heart on their equally strong, bare chest. Isa had never been one to engage in pure sexual pleasure, in fact, she was more the type of person who fell in love with the conversation and interaction rather than one's beauty of body figure.

Loving and lusting over a body for its exterior appearance - it was never something she could understand. From all her flings and past lovers of the last life, it had never been for sexual release or an escape or their outer beauty. Not their body, not the masks they wore around society. It was who they were and what they wanted.

And in this case, this girl (like her) wanted comfort in someone loving her (truly loving her as herself) for once, and even if it only lasted for a single night, their time together gave her something to keep her moving forward, to remind herself why she was staying strong.

Isa was rather an empath. She would never allow herself to hurt someone for her own gain. It just wasn't who she was.

But as she laid that night with her limbs intertwined with the girl who let her see her city, her world, and the look in her eyes as they kissed, she wondered what it would be like to have more than that.

She wondered if it was too much a fantasy to become a reality.

She tucked the tiny pang of want underneath her emotions and behind her heart. She didn't need to dwell on these thoughts now. And so with that lost decision, she closed her eyes and let herself sleep to the rhythm of the owner's own beating heart next to her. By morning's dawn, she was back on her feet, dressed, and preparing coffee for the girl before she left, not wanting her departure to feel like she was never there - like it was just a dream.

And so as she finished the preparation of coffee, thankful for her previous barista experiences in coffee-expertise, grabbed a small slip of paper and left a short yet sincere note on the counter with the coffee made, having little doubt the city would be up and about soon, and assured herself a final moment that she had everything to call her own packed and ready to go as she closed the apartment door softly behind her.

 _Thank you for showing me your world. - IS_

She could only hope the honest words were enough to bring that smile back to the one she left behind.

* * *

There was something to be said about the irony in Isa's life, or existence perhaps was the better word for her situation, as she found herself pulling into another city after a driver nearly gave her a heart-attack by passing a red light like it wasn't promising trouble and colliding into another car. It was a scratch compared to her own experience of flipped cars but it unsettled her greatly nonetheless and decided to take the rest of the day off-road.

However, try as she might she couldn't get the incident out of her head and was left driving down a narrow and dark street where no one, not even the home and jobless were seen about. She took in the quiet, breathing in deep despite the morbid stink in the area, and blocked the memory from her consciousness the best she could. Slowing her motorcycle to a stop, she leaned it against the wall and put her back against it as she reached a hand in her coat pocket to pull out a familiar pack that brought back poor memories but were still richer than those of the crash.

Propping the cigarette between her fingers, she stared into the sky, not bothering to bring the cigarette up to her lips as she lost herself in ancient memories. Contrary to the evidence in her hand, she never liked smoking, as it never solved anyone's problems before. However, when times were particularly rough she would go out into the city and breathe in the familiar scent of tobacco smoke from a distance, the oxygen less suffocating and overall making it easier to breathe.

Irony aside from that statement, it was the reason she needed the cigarette in her hand now, breathing in the smoke as it brought back the life she once knew and lived. She tried not to do it often, hardly ever doing since living back in a household with lifeforms that were not the birds outside her apartment window and tried her best to cope without it. This was even her first cigarette since becoming Isa, and oh, how she needed it.

Feeling the tension relax from her shoulders she sighed, watching as the gesture caused the smoke to fly forwards before spiraling back up to disperse. She smirked a bit, not for any particular reason, and closed her eyes, the back of her hair pressing into the wall while her neck tingled uncomfortably to the cold shade. So much time had passed, Isa thought wistfully, as she spent minutes doing nothing but breathing in the smoke. It was unusual for her because she felt like she was always doing something since waking up underwater. Never allowing herself to relax, to breathe, to cope with wearing this new skin. She hadn't wanted to think about what she no longer had, sincerely doubting she could change anything, or even if she should.

She took another deep breath when suddenly her breath faulted and she tensed, her instincts practically screaming at her that something was different. Something was off. Isa had always been well-attuned to her intuition; her instincts, and it worried her a bit about why they were acting up now. Sure, she was in a dark alley with no weapon but her fists but it was hardly the first time she was in a situation like this-

Footsteps sounded at a clumsy rhythm and dread hit Isa at the familiarity of the sound - someone was drunk, coming towards a dark alley, and suddenly Isa wanted to be anywhere but there.

Quickly turning she moved a leg unto the other side of her bike and grabbed her keys to get on the move when she pulled a classic horror-movie stunt and fumbled the keys right out of her hands where it clinked unbearably loudly somewhere behind her tires. Isa cursed loudly as she maneuvered herself away from her motorcycle to try and find where she dropped her keys, only to have goosebumps rise on her arms at being unable to find it.

Then promptly followed the action with a muffled curse for cursing so loudly before at her misfortune.

A second later the smell of alcohol and vomit hit her senses and jarred her rationality. Isa found herself turning face to face to the stranger, drunk and barely on his feet, standing maybe a foot or two away from her. She barely had a second to question how he approached her so fast when he sent her a lust-filled gaze and revolting grin, reaching out towards her with a slimy "why hello there" as he did so.

And before she could think up a rational escape plan her hand was shooting out and batting his outstretched hand like a swatter to a fly. He winced, stumbling slightly, before grinning back at her. "Always liked em' fierce," he slurred, his half-lidded gaze showing he wasn't all there but Isa couldn't have cared less knowing his intentions.

"Get the fuck away from me, bastard!"

He grinned, stumbling toward her another step. "Oh, if anything I'll be fucking-"

"Is he bothering you, my lady?" A soft-spoken, musical voice asked from behind her. Almost immediately a chill swept down her spine and the air suddenly felt utterly suffocating in his presence. Her instincts, once screaming before, were now practically ringing a death knell at this man's arrival. Isa didn't even have time to curse herself, as both she and the drunk shifted to stare at incomer.

She thought about how her senses were usually pretty good, able to hear someone's footsteps from an impressive distance, even able to smell a shift in the air. She could see farther than she ever had with glasses in her old life, and was rarely, if ever at all in this life caught off-guard.

To have this man show up out of seemingly nowhere without a sound set off warning bells in her mind almost as loud as the sound of the death knell.

But as she really looked at the man her breath caught in her throat. Despite the shadows cast over him by the roof's shade overhead, she could see his sharp, practically elvish features stand out. Sharp cheekbones, flawless skin, well-groomed hair, and eyes that were dark and even dangerous in their gaze. He was, in short, incredibly beautiful. Isa usually admired beauty in a person, not feeling pulled towards them in any way, but appreciating the rare beauty some people have naturally.

For once in her existence though she felt anything but appreciation for this man. His beauty felt so wrong it scared her. In fact, his eyes probably scared her the most. The look in his expression would betray kindness to the common stranger or maybe even someone standing at a distance, but for someone who learned how to read facial expressions in her youth and studied psychology in her adulthood: she knew that he was nothing his appearance tried to portray.

It probably helped that she hated the sound of musical or honeyed tones, it made her feel uncomfortable like crazy, reading into the sound often too much, but in this case, she grateful for it.

She was also terrified.

Because whoever this was, Isa was certain of one thing: he was a predator.

And so when he turned his eyes to her all she could do was feel her throat constrict and stare blankly back, hoping that at this moment her body wasn't betraying exactly how she was feeling inside. The man turned his gaze away from her to stare at the man and tsked softly, in an almost scolding manner that once again felt so wrong to Isa in a way she couldn't explain. Desperately she wanted to just grab her keys and flee like the world was on fire but couldn't, couldn't struggle or she'd be screwed.

She would just have to play this by the book and hope she could use the drunk as a distraction to book the hell out of this place.

"Scaring a perfectly fine lady like that, what do you have to say for yourself?" The man asked, stepping in front of her in an almost possessive manner to glower at the man. The drunk staggered back, clearly intimidating by something he saw in the man's gaze she herself couldn't see and physically cowered. Her brows furrowed, wondering what could throw a man so out-of-it in one gaze. "Get out of here, I don't enjoy the scent of alcohol so far in one's bloodstream. You could get yourself killed drinking so much," the man scolded again in an almost merciful way that sent Isa reeling; wondering why in high hell was he letting this creep walk away like being drunk in a dark alley approaching a girl meant nothing sinister?

But that thought was immediately banished as the drunk clearly agreed, almost panicked, before turning heel and running in the opposite direction as fast as he could while stumbling over his own feet. Isa jolted as she realized she was suddenly alone with the sound of death - a predator - in front of her. The man turned around slowly, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture, as he looked down at her (she cursed her height) with half-lidded but very clear eyes.

"Hope he wasn't too much trouble," he spoke to her, his voice once again musical with an almost calming tone to it. She felt her body, completely against her will, relax as he took a step towards her. She tried to make her limbs move in the opposite direction, tried with all her might, but it was as if suddenly her mind was disconnected from her body. "I really can't stand the taste of alcohol. Don't know why you sully yourselves drinking it. You're all so much better off without it."

Desperately trying to stall for time, she opened her mouth (apparently her only working body connection) and blurted, "You talk like you're so different." She would've winced at the roughness of her tone if she were with anyone else and anywhere else. He grinned at her, his lips parting enough to reveal shining pearly teeth. "Oh but I am. I take care of what I need."

He took another step towards her, his body moving out of the shadows revealing dark crimson eyes, sharpened unnatural canines, and an expression she had never seen directed towards her in her entire life. Something straight out of a horror novel.

She froze.

He took another step.

"Get the hell away from me!" She shouted, trying to stumble away and run. Try and get the hell away from this danger-magnet, but her body wouldn't move and she swore he had to be doing something to her. This couldn't be natural, her body freezing like it couldn't move, his predatorial look of hunger - not lust - directed at her.

"Shh, don't speak," he whispered, and to her utmost horror Isa found her mouth shut out of her own accord, and no matter how hard she tried to work her vocal cords and jaw they remained stagnant. Frozen like the rest of her body.

"It will only hurt a lot."

Mouth opened wide in a toothy grin, Isa found herself staring at his canine's lengthening into fangs before he shifted to cup her cheek with one hand in order to tilt her head to the side while his other hand came up to rest on her shoulder - keeping her in place. And then, he leaned forward and she felt herself want to shudder in disgust as his lips kissed the skin of her neck before followed by a sharp pain, blinding pain as teeth tore through flesh with the feeling similar to grating sandpaper and needles. She wanted to writhe in agony as the pain seemed to ignite like it were fire as this man - creature - bit into her. And then to her utmost horror, she realized he was actually drinking her blood. She could feel her own lifeblood move to her neck and be drained into the man's own throat.

It scared her more than she ever had been scared before. More fear than waking up in a foreign body, to a family that was not her own. Even more than dying.

And the worst part was knowing this wasn't a dream or some twisted hallucination of her rational mind.

She should've known really, through the agony of his fangs in her throat she thought of how she came to this life, her ability to see flashbacks of someone else's life through the touch of items out of her control. She didn't ask for a second chance in someone else's shoes, not the ability of precognition, and certainly not the knowledge that she wasn't the only person in the unnatural (dare she say supernatural) category.

Isa was in a world outside familiarity.

This couldn't be real.

But as black spots suddenly decorated her vision and the world began to spin uncontrollably on its axis she wondered how something real could have such agony? How the pain was feeling as though she was alight with fire; like her body was burning up from the inside-out, and she was all too aware of the presence beside her draining her of life.

And when he finally pulled away from her neck and moved back into her line of sight, she could only stare into his previous dark-crimson-almost-black eyes now-transformed vibrant red - his irises nothing like they were albino - and watched as his fangs retracted into normal, albeit still sharp-looking, canines she has seen before. He smiled at her then, as though saying he got what he wanted, and Isa could say or do nothing even if she could as she felt his hands move to each side of her head as they stared into one another's eyes.

"You can say what I am now, I know you've realized by now."

Isa swallowed, noticing her vocal cords were working again but still felt that her lungs constricted in a way that portrayed she didn't want to speak. Didn't want to accept this reality that's slapped her in the face.

Didn't want to face the truth even as she felt her own blood sliding down slick and warm against her neck.

"Say it," he demanded, something in his voice resonating with power that had Isa obeying the order utterly and completely against her will.

"Vampire," she gasped.

He tilted his chin up and smiled again at her, leaning in causing Isa to flinch having regained mobility in her body again but soon realized it didn't matter as his pure strength alone held her up by the man's grasp on each side of her head. She had no choice but to plant her feet on the pavement to keep herself from stretching the open wound on her neck. Ignoring her struggle the vampire said to her ear in the softest and gentlest of whispers, "Rest in peace, my lady."

And before she could blink she saw his arms move lightning fast before the lights went out and the last thing she heard was a resounding snap in the air.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: I wrote this chapter out pretty quickly because I didn't want to leave you guys hanging on that awful cliffhanger back there. I'll try to keep the cliffhangers to a minimum but that last chapter was necessary and I didn't want the story to sound or be rushed. A forewarning: keep an open mind when reading this, as it's pretty AU from canon, but still Twilight. Also, because I updated this so quickly I apologize for any missed errors in my writing._

 _ **Hijacked**_

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just the one tinkering around with it. A lot.

 **Chapter Three**

Isa had never really given much thought on how she would die. Although that was mostly because death was sudden and very unexpected, not to mention on a level of pain she never wanted to experience again. Like it or not it seemed that dying was going to be a part of her life now.

She felt oddly optimistic and tranquil about her situation despite having the life drained from her followed by a somewhat merciful snap of her neck. The only reason she felt okay about it all though was most likely in part because she was currently standing beside her body (and wasn't that weird?) and staring at her transparent arm with perplexity.

The thought occurred to her that she was probably invisible, considering that the vampire who just murdered her was wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he looked at her body uninterested - clearly not aware of her presence. She studied him in his 'true' persona, despising him already as he appeared clearly smug about her becoming his meal, and his now-vibrant crimson eyes danced in the light of the sun, as he ducked back into the shadows.

Vampire.

She knew what vampires were. Anyone who actively read fiction probably did. Not to mention the huge roar about Underworld in her last life between Vampires, Lycans, and Humans. Due to the lack of human-awareness, on the other hand, she was quite sure things were a bit different here than in Underworld's lifestyle. But her knowledge of vampires also extended to the legends and myths that surrounded them; how they were once human beings before they were turned into vampires, preying on unsuspecting or vulnerable humans.

And as most humans seemed to need their food sources, so did vampires.

So, Isa tried to be a little understanding of the circumstances of her murder.

The vampire smirked then and appeared suddenly beside her motorcycle in a blur of physic-defying speed that Isa was sure would've left her a whiplash had she been, well, alive.

But any optimism and understanding she had for her murderer and the vampire's murder of her vanished when the man picked up the keys she had dropped earlier and sent the most revolting grin towards her body. Hit with rage like she had never felt before Isa was in front of him in a with a gust of wind, her hand thrown instinctively forwards and watched as the vampire was thrown off his feet and landed feet away from her motorcycle, the keys dropped in the middle between them.

Snarling, she shot forwards just as the vampire was looking around in confusion and went to wrap her hands around his throat in payback for biting her throat only to stare shellshocked as her hands pass through the vampire like he was an illusion, despite how he was on his feet in half a second, trying to find the source of his unease to no avail.

Confused but still very much enraged, she shot her arm out again with the desire that the wind would knock him off his feet again but nothing happened. Frowning, she tried to recall how she made it happen before and closed her eyes, feeling a power resonating within her but uncertain of how to draw it out.

"Who's there?" The vampire asked, uneasily. Isa felt satisfaction in his discomfort.

Isa threw her arm out again, angry and exasperated, and still, nothing happened. Sighing, she reminded herself to be patient and that the vampire didn't appear to be going anywhere. Concentrating, she remembered how she wanted nothing more than to be beside the vampire when he went to steal her motorcycle. She remembers needing him to back away from it as well.

Perhaps willpower was the answer? Sheer need for something to happen.

She moved both arms out this time, palms facing outward and flat, and visualized how she wanted a force to throw the vampire back again. She imagined the power within her coursing through her spectral body, building up in her arms before sending it out with such focus that she could physically feel the rush of energy as it shot forwards and seemed to almost grab the vampire as he was not just thrown off his feet again but was thrown like he was picked up and tossed to an invisible receiver at the end of the alleyway, where his back collided into quite a few crates.

Isa lowered her arms in awe, feeling the energy in the air where she stood, and as though she was the wind itself she flew towards him, yanking a fist back before charging it forward with the power within her. The sound of stone cracking resonated loudly as her fist stopped right in front of his face where the wind connected, and stared, clearly startled at how his unnatural beauty was marred by the cracks in his face. Isa felt like grinning then, being able to prove that the man beneath the beauty was the monster that took her life moment before and let out joyous laughter at the exhilaration that hit her.

She had never felt so free; so much herself until now! Her willpower, once so strong alive, was now a physical force and ultimate defense. It was like a fictional dream came true, and where she once felt so vulnerable in human skin against this vampire she now felt on top of the world. Like she was the predator of predators! She could stay like this forever. No more masks or lies or false personas. No more living and a fear of dying because she was already between the two categories. Neither living nor dead.

"Who are you!" The vampire cried out, cupping his broken face with pain sneered across his face. His vibrant eyes looked everywhere for a sign of life, of another presence, and Isa watched in glee as he tried and failed to detect her presence. However, that glee soon turned to fear as his eyes landed on her body in the distance, perhaps noticing something she herself didn't.

The only warning Isa got towards his intentions where the fierce snarl across his face before he disappeared from where he stood, clearly intending to reach her body, to do what she didn't know and Isa suddenly felt herself hit with her instincts once more, startling her. Where she once felt free of all emotions and aspirations, she wasn't anymore and felt something akin to dread as he grew closer to her body. In the span of half a second for her to realize just how much danger she was in, it only took a second more for her to throw her arms out once again, this time with the utmost urgency and visualized what she needed to happen and willed to a point of exhaustion she hadn't expected to feel in this form.

But the sight of seeing the vampire physically bounce away from her body just before reaching it was decidedly worth it, seeing his face as he was blocked by an invisible barrier. A strange chill swept through her, like the energy that once fueled her excitement was leaving her, and she looked back at her body as though drawn to it. A sense of urgency hit her then, but to tell her what she could not understand, all she knew is that something felt wrong.

A feeling that felt worse than dying. Like something was severing a connection invisible to even her.

She didn't think - couldn't think anymore. Any rational sense of mind she once had in this form was gone and she felt herself running back towards her body hit with an exhaustion that weighed heavily down on her as though the world itself was on top of her shoulders. It was painful without there being any pain, an exhaustion that reached soul-deep, and even though she wanted it to just stop and end she knew she had to reach her body. So she willed the last of her strength and energy and any power left in the air to reach her body.

As she reached a hand out in sheer desperation, the moment her hand touched her body she felt like her world was flipped upside down and was hit with a wall, unable to resist or move.

And yet it didn't hurt; she didn't feel any pain despite how certain she felt she would. And in the next moment everything was dark, and then she was taking a lung full of much-needed oxygen, sitting up only to stare in puzzlement because the sky was no longer bright. Blue skies and slow-moving clouds of the afternoon were now black with twinkling stars overhead.

Isa winced, her neck sore and she felt a headache brewing unwelcoming as well. She moved to her feet, slowly, and then sighed in relief to see her bike backed up against the wall. Puzzled, she wondered why she felt like she was missing something. She had a strange dream that felt like a fleeting memory and went to lean upon a wall only for the movement to cause a sharp pain to flare up at the side of her neck.

Slowly, she moved a hand up and was startled to find it sticky and had a moment to wonder the cause before pulling her hand back to her line of sight and stared blankly at the familiar tint of the shade of blood. There was something else too. A clear yet visible liquid that lay separated from the rest of her blood. It was something foreign and wrong, something that didn't belong. It had a silvery shine to it that was nothing familiar to Isa's memory, and she wished she could remember how the day had turned to night in what felt like minutes.

Sighing, the teenager slowly walked over to her bike only to see her keys out of sight. Grumbling under her breath, she began scavenging the area for the keys and idly thought about why she never bothered herself to learn how to wire the engine in case she ever lost her keys.

Something caught the edge of her vision and she turned to approach the wall at the end of the alley where the wall appeared to be crushed like stone with a somewhat body-shaped indention. Brows furrowed, she caught the glint of silver beside one of the broken stones cast off to the side and went to kneel on the pavement to pick up her keys when her fingertips touched silver and she stiffened, eyes glazed over as her vision shifted and doubled, a flashback hitting her - and hitting her hard.

 _She stood in the alley breathing in the smoke of a cigarette. A gentle smile graced her expression on a rare occasion only to vanish at the sound of unstable footsteps in the distance. A filthy man leered at her, reaching a hand out to grab her, only for her to force his hand away from her. An unknown presence appeared behind her, appearing out of the shadows, scaring the other man away before turning to her with liquid gold in his tone but she clearly was alarmed by his presence._

 _Dark crimson eyes flashed in the light of the day as he stepped out of the shadows. She couldn't move as he revealed his fangs before taunting her, teasing her, promising pain and biting into her neck._

 _"Say it" power resonated in his tone. Her eyes glazed despite how much she tried to struggle before and she obeyed._

 _"Vampire"_

 _The man, now known Vampire, smiled - clearly pleased - before his arms blurred at inhuman speed and a resonating crack filled the air. Her body crumpled to the ground, neck twisted at an unnatural angle, eyes staring blankly into the distance while blood from her neck pooled around her._

 _The wind shifted._

 _A presence that wasn't there before appeared and Isa felt herself become that presence of what she thought was the wind. It was as though she was suddenly taking the back-seat of her own body in a form she couldn't see and watched in puzzlement as she threw the vampire around like a sack of potatoes. Nostalgia hit her, and she felt the memory try to fight its way back to her even as she watched it replay itself in front of her._

 _Something shifted then. Something was different. Something wrong._

 _Isa couldn't describe the feeling because in the next moment she was rushing back to her body, watching as the vampire reached out towards her body with intent to destroy her body written all-over his posture, when suddenly she was reaching through him to touch her body, and the moment her hand made contact she could physically feel a connection between her spectral form and her body, and the exhaustion and lack of energy disappeared. Power rushed back into her and she spun around, one hand still touching her body, and reached into her to find that familiar rush. She could feel the barrier she put up before that was holding back the angry vampire was beginning to evaporate and so she shifted, remaining contact with her body as her other hand withdrew from inside the man until it was just a hair's breath away from contact and willed like she didn't know she was capable of for him to be thrown away from them just before the barrier collapsed._

 _And the moment he was thrown away from her again she turned back to her body and focused on surrounding her body in her energy, willing it to become invisible, before glancing back to where the vampire was back on his feet and staring right at her. He looked confused, appearing in front of her in another blur of unnatural speed, and seemed to stare straight at her with great focus. Isa watched as he breathed in deeply, nostrils flaring, and eyebrows furrowed before his shoulder slumped and he sighed._

 _"The hell is going on?" He voiced his thought aloud before shaking his head and turned away, leaving in the same blur of speed as before. Isa waited a moment, and then another just to assure herself the threat was gone, before turning back to stare at her body. It was strange looking at your own body, she decided. This body may not be the one she was born with but it had become her own with time, and for a body who had just died... well, it didn't look dead._

 _For one, she didn't appear to be losing any more blood, the only thing that showed she had bitten was the healing puncture wounds in her neck, followed by the blood there, and the strange silvery-clear liquid that was flowing out of the healing wound, almost like her body was rejecting it. She stared at it transfixed before remembering her neck had been broken, the cause of her death that had released her from the flaming agony, but as she inspected her body it didn't appear to be broken at all._

 _Withdrawing her hand, she stared transfixed as the wound on her neck became an angry red, blood flowing again, and her complexion becoming even paler than it had been a moment ago. A disturbing conclusion hit her but Isa tried not to think about it too much and immediately resumed contact with her body. She could only wait until she didn't look half-dead before trying to return to this body._

 _Because if her experience with that vampire taught her anything about her mysterious circumstances it was that her soul was anchored to this body, and to exist without a body literally felt like the world was on weighing you down and something was breaking that couldn't be broken._

 _She never wanted to feel like that again._

 _And so she stayed there, watching her body heal, and waited._

Isa blinked, the flashback disappearing and she was left staring blankly at the keys touching her fingertips. She had her answer now, and her memories were back of that moment, and she wondered then if she had precognition for this reason. She sighed, deciding she better get out of this alleyway before getting lost in her thoughts. Quickly snatching her keys up off the ground, she hurried back to her motorcycle, walking with a purpose to get the hell out of there and find out what is going on.

And as she left, she tried very hard not to glance back at her blood staining the pavement from where she had been murdered - doing her best not to be distracted while driving and hoping she didn't look as though she had just been attacked.

Somehow though, she doubted the blood staining her collar made her look like she had been through anything but that.

At least a girl could dream, couldn't she?

* * *

It was a small miracle that Isa didn't get a ticket after she sped out of the city last night like there were dogs at her heels. She wasn't fond of driving in the dark but resolved that anything was better than staying in the same place she was murdered and the place that vampire, or his supernatural friends, may be hanging out in. She tried to forget about how fast the vampire could move, that he could probably easily catch up to her despite her motorcycle barely on legal speed and would bypass the cars like they were nothing to reach to her.

She wasn't fond of reliving another car crash, but at least she had life insurance of coming back from being dead.

And man did that sound weird.

So it was well after dark and close to dawn that Isa eventually drove into another city, about a day's drive left to Forks if she kept driving and didn't stop once. Crossing the state border was tempting, it gave her irrational hope that what she left behind her would stay behind her, but she knew the minute she lived with Charlie she'd practically invited other supernaturals to come and join her.

Because she wasn't just a human being anymore. She didn't care if she was still human, exactly, just so long as she kept her human mind - she was happy. And she did, but that still couldn't explain how much of her was still human and how much of it was affected by her death experiences. What was she?

What was she? Isa needed answers.

And by mid-morning she pulled up to a truck-stop for its gas-station, refilling her tank before parking to go to their - no doubt - gross bathrooms and try to clean up a bit. She was glad that strangely enough, no one seemed to care that she was covered in blood on the upper left side of herself, and whichever reasons why that was she was grateful for it. However, she imagined being in large cities and road travel was the benefit to that. Small towns wouldn't guarantee that - at all.

Another reason why she didn't immediately head to Forks. Her week wasn't over yet and she was going to spend every last hour of the day free before going to her father.

Snapping her bag off her motorcycle she tossed it over her shoulder before walking into the gas station/convenience store/restaurant store and appreciated the genius who combined four stops into one as she headed to the nearest ladies' bathroom which was thankfully empty due to the time of day and locked herself inside the largest stall to change clothes. Starting from below up she changed her undergarments, socks, and pants and took a deep breath before beginning the work of peeling her shirt off her wound.

Wincing slightly as the fabric caught itself in her dried blood, and therefore over where she knew her wound was, she pulled a little harder than necessary but successfully got the collar of her shirt free. Exhaling heavily she removed her shirt, and ran a hand over the sensitive area of her neck where plenty of blood was now dried and disgusting, Isa decided as she wrinkled her nose in distaste. She will never understand how cannibals or vampires could taste human blood and enjoy it. She was only grateful she wasn't feeling faint, gods knew she should after her experience no less than a day before.

Running a hand over the side of her jaw she wondered about the bite, easily dismissing the memory of the pain, and thought back to the strange silvery-clear liquid that intermixed with her blood without actually being apart of her blood. She thought of how her body rejected it while her body healed and could only guess it was from the vampire, and she didn't think it was his saliva either. And she wasn't sure if she should be thankful or disgusted by that, probably a mixture of that.

And there was a good chance it was still on her skin, and she really didn't have a way to clean dried blood in the bathroom stall. With a heavy sigh, she unlocked the door, grabbed her bag with her dirty clothes, and held her spare shirt and jacket in her other hand as she went to the sink. After setting everything down she wet some paper towels and went through the slow process of removing dried blood along with the unknown liquid on her neck.

When her skin was clean of blood and shining liquid, she tossed the evidence of her attack in the trash before tilting her head to study the healing wound on her neck. With the vampire's polluting liquid out of her neck, it appeared to be less red and okay to touch. She felt better now that the blood in the wound had clotted too, preventing further blood loss, and if she made a guess she would say that the wound would completely heal by tonight or early morning the next day.

If there was any sign she wasn't so human that she hadn't known before, it was how fast this wound was healing. She sighed again before splashing water on her face in an attempt to make her body wake up from the long drive and long day. She was just about to grab her shirt to pull on when she froze, something in the reflection of her upper torso causing her to make a double-take at the familiar ouroboros marking on her skin.

It wasn't exactly the ouroboros itself that caught her attention though. No, the black snake eating its own tail looked the same since she woke up. The thing about it that was different was the new ink inside the circle of the Ouroboros. It was a strange symbol. It was kind of like a winding spiral but was more of an outlined shape of a spiral than a spiral itself.

She knew it wasn't a Celtic spiral. Knew because she had a fascination with it when she was younger and had thought about getting a Celtic tattoo just for the symbolism but opted not to. She was glad she studied the Celtics though, considering the knowledge was coming into use now. It sort of had a double spiral look to it except the center was all wrong. Isa sighed, adding 'finding the name of the symbol' into her mental checklist before pulling on her shirt this time, quickly followed by her jacket, and flipped the collars up to hide the healing wound. It may have been less noticeable but she didn't want to catch anyone's attention.

She shivered at the thought of accidentally catching another vampire's attention. She was evidence that she knew of their existence, and she was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to know, whether she was not-so-human herself or not. After getting her belongings together once again she made a half-hearted attempt at making herself (mainly her hair) presentable before giving up because it was the crack of dawn anyways and she would be getting back on her motorcycle soon anyways and left it be.

After leaving the ladies' room she headed to the quaint little restaurant towards the back parking lot and ordered a strong cup of coffee and breakfast before starting on the refreshing glass of water in hopes that it may help replenish the blood she had lost. She didn't all understand how well her body healed after dying and didn't know if it accounted for its loss of blood but Isa wasn't going to chance it anyway, not after her night.

She couldn't be caught weak and caught-of-guard again. Not when there are human predators that aren't sexual predators. Really, it was bad enough having sexual predators and now she had to learn there were supernatural predators that liked to make a meal out of humans? Great.

Pulling out her laptop and notebook, she connected it to the wifi with relief and pulled up a tab, opening her notebook to a page followed by rolling a pen between the pages. She wondered if she should straight away type in vampires but unfortunately, she felt her heart catch in her throat, suddenly very concerned and cautious. Sure, hackers and computer-stalkers weren't as common and advanced as they were ten years from now in her world/time but she was pretty sure someone had to be holding their existence a secret somehow? The question she wanted the answer to was if the vampires were as old fashion as the stories wrote them out to be or if they were more advanced than humans because they lived hundreds of years with boredom leaving them plenty things to research that humans were barely taking a step forward in.

She pushed down the unfairness of the thought and then slapped herself mentally considering she was kind of in the same boat as them in a way when it came to long lives. Besides, there was a chance that vampires were just lazy and slept all the time. Or were traveling the world to taste humans of all sorts of culture and diversity. Still, she needed answers and she didn't want anything to be back-tracked to her. Wishing she learned hacking or something more about computers she sighed and glanced back at her notebook.

She thought about coding what she would write so she could look into it like her personal biography book only she could access but she didn't think she was clever enough to conjure a code that couldn't be decoded, and if something supernatural came across it they would probably want her dead. Whether she came back from the dead or not she didn't want other supernaturals to find out about that. One, because she would be hunted and two, who knew, she may end up their guinea pig. After all, men have ruled, lived, and died searching for immortality. Human or vampire, there had to be other supernaturals out there if she was one, and whether or not she was a one of a kind being or not, she imagined there were others out there that wanted her "immortality."

Immortal? She doubted it. She remembered that feeling as her body was dying past dying, how she felt something was severing inside of her even in spectral form, and it scared her. Perhaps partial immortality but even that was pushing it. There was a lot she was missing about herself, what she was, and what it meant and she wanted answers to her questions but didn't want to have to die again to get them. She exhaled slowly. She didn't have to dwell on that now. Right now she needed to research, study, and make small steps before trying to leap over mountains.

As her coffee and food arrived, she thanked and smiled at the waitress as she refilled her water and went to the next customer, before picking up her pen and writing _Symbolism_ because it was the most simplistic and less suspicious than other things she couldn't write. She decided that she wouldn't really write a code but write it in a way that had half the notes in her head and the other on paper. She started by drawing the symbol she had seen in the circle of her ouroboros followed by a semicolon with a space she left blank before beginning to research it.

An hour later she was paying for her meal and shutting off her laptop, her notebook opened in front of her as she began to pack her laptop before looking back at her notes to memorize what she had written.

Beside the drawing of the symbol of the marking inside her ouroboros was _Aravinda: represents the growth and evolution achieved through the experience of mind-body-spirit living._ She thought about how her first death since becoming Isa caused this marking to appear and mentally added: _focused on the connection of death, the spirit, and life._

After that, she had included the Celtic spiral and the double-spiral to make it appear as though she were just looking into spirals before she moved unto the drawing of the moon, which represented Nyx, but she decided to use it as a representation of vampires. _The Moon of Nyx: represents the daughter of Chaos; night, darkness, beauty, and death._ A.K.A. vampires. _Nyx has the power to be feared by many -_ that represented how vampires are powerful - _and is feared by both men and gods -_ which meant they hunt humans and possibly were a threat to other supernaturals. She didn't write any more about it, was tempted to add their appearances, but thought that would add too much risk.

So instead she added the symbol of Erebus before moving unto the caduceus which was often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius.

After that, she wrote about the staff of Asclepius. It represented her Ouroboros, which even though she could simply get away with writing it for the matter of her marking, she didn't want to risk causing there to be a connection made between her and the supernatural. Even if she claimed it as a tattoo, she didn't want to be careless, and so she used the symbol often seen in Greek Mythology. _Asclepius was known as the god of Healing and had become so skilled that he could bring his patients back to life_ \- represented her supernatural ability to come back after dying - _and was killed because Zeus felt that the immortality of the Gods was threatened and killed the healer with a thunderbolt. At Apollo's request, Asclepius was placed among the stars as Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer._

Isa thought Zeus was a bit of a whiny brat with too much power and decided to stay clear of thunderstorms in case he too existed and would kill her for thinking ill of him. She never liked Zeus, Greek mythology even less, because of how messed up it was. She thought that a lot of lost history and civilization knew what they were doing but were killed off by idiots or their stupid gods, and wondered just where the supernatural came from. Deciding that question was probably 2,000 years too stale she brushed the thought away and chose to focus on her own situation.

She thought she was lucky that she found a page that listed these symbols along with the ouroboros but included the ouroboros section of it into the staff of Asclepius. What caught her attention though and committed to memory rather than writing down was the statement: the Uroboros/Ouroboros is the unity of life and death in which all things that arise into existence must descend back into the void.

The void, that resonated with her, and Isa wondered if it represented death. Not dying but death as in the next life. Welcoming death. The unity of life and death could explain her situation because she is both living and dying. She wondered... "The unconscious life of nature," she mumbled, recalling the words. "-combines the most meaningless destruction with the supreme meaningfulness of instinctive creation; for the meaningful unity of the organism is as 'natural' as the cancer which devours it." She furrowed her brows as she followed putting her notebook in her bag and finishing the rest of her water.

The unconscious life of nature probably represented the meaningless death as pointless deaths and the meaningfulness life as the obsession of making more life or simply the focus/importance of being alive. It sounded about right in regards to human nature/society. She thought about how she died the last two times. How meaningless it all was. And here she was now, still alive. She remembered fighting to return to her body. To live. Not parish.

To avoid The Void. To avoid Death.

 _Avoid Death... that's what it means to be an Ouroboros,_ Isa realized. It made sense; all the puzzle pieces and questions were now fitting into place with the answer. Her marking was of an ouroboros, combined with the Aravinda symbol which was the evolution of life and death, the connection to the mind-body-spirit. She didn't know if there was a name for what she was, didn't know if there were more of her kind, she only knew what she was now.

And whether it went by a different name or not, Isa was going to stick to calling herself an Ouroboros. But now what she knew what she was, she needed to find out what she could do, and just what she was going to do with her life. What the abilities and limitations that came with being an Ouroboros. Even though she had more questions than answers now, she found her satisfied with finally understanding what she was, how she wasn't crazy in having a prior existence to this life, and that her precognition wasn't her the only supernatural thing about her.

She had a place in the world now. It wasn't all just a desperate hope or fantasy.

This was real.


End file.
